A PERSONAL STORY FROM DAVI...

One day, when our daughter, Santhi, was 11 months old she started crying as I tried to put her down for an afternoon nap. I didn’t understand what she wanted as she was clearly tired.

She kept signing, “More, more, more!

So I signed and asked her, “More, what? More…milk? More…books?”

Santhi stopped for a moment, looked at me directly in the eyes, and then signed,
“More, YOU!” while saying “Mo, Mama!”

I couldn’t stop myself from crying in awe of our precious little one. I scooped Santhi up and we played together. About fifteen minutes later she signed “bed” and promptly went to sleep. Our daughter felt empowered and confident to communicate her needs through sign language. I can only imagine the frustration that we both might have felt if she did not have sign language as a resource and I had to guess what she wanted.

As a special education teacher, I have always used American Sign Language in my classrooms to teach children with autism. When we had Santhi, my husband and I started signing with her from 6 months of age using the tenets “SIGN with your BABY,” by Joseph Garcia. By 12 months of age she had about 25 signs in her vocabulary. I am continually humbled by the many gifts that signing has given my family.

The above inspired me to become a member of the Sign2Me Presenters’ Network and teach sign language classes to infants and their families in the Philadelphia area.

I look forward to teaching you & yours how to sign with love!